Robert D. Novak from Creators Syndicate

McCain, Not Disarmed for 05/22/2008

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — When one of the Democratic Party's most astute strategists this week criticized John McCain for attacking Barack Obama's desire to engage Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I asked what the Republican presidential candidate ought to talk about in this campaign. "Health care and the economy," he replied. That is a sure formula for Democratic victory, but it ...

Updated: Thu May 22, 2008

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Warner for VP? for 05/24/2008

Sat, 24 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, a strong favorite to be elected to the Senate this year, has told associates that he is being considered as Barack Obama's vice presidential running mate. He did not indicate whether he would be receptive to such an offer.

Removing Warner from the campaign for the seat now held by retiring Republican Sen. John Warner (no relation ...

Updated: Sat May 24, 2008

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A Vice President for Abortion for 05/26/2008

Mon, 26 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, whose Roman Catholic archdiocese covers northeast Kansas, on May 9 called on Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to stop taking Communion until she disowns her support for the "serious moral evil" of abortion. That put the church in conflict with a rising star of the Democratic Party, often described as a "moderate" and perhap ...

Updated: Mon May 26, 2008

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Hillary Agonistes for 05/29/2008

Thu, 29 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — When Hillary Clinton last Friday said, "We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June (1968) in California," she was not saying anything she had not publicly declared earlier. Yet, those words detonated a politically critical mass, raising among Democrats new levels of anti-Clinton sentiment and concern about Barack Obama's viability in the general el ...

Updated: Thu May 29, 2008

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McClellan's Revenge for 05/31/2008

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republican insiders see the bitter criticism in Scott McClellan's memoir, "What Happened," as a payback for his abrupt firing as White House press secretary in the spring of 2006.

McClellan's book makes it clear he did not like it when newly appointed White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten informed him he was done as press secretary. His resignation was ...

Updated: Sat May 31, 2008

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McClellan on Plame for 06/02/2008

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In Scott McClellan's purported tell-all memoir of his trials as President George W. Bush's press secretary, he virtually ignores Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage's role leaking to me Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA employee. That fits the partisan Democratic version of the Plame affair, in keeping with the overall tenor of "What Happened."

A ...

Updated: Mon Jun 02, 2008

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Hillary's Latest Provocation for 06/05/2008

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Just when it seemed on the last Tuesday of the presidential primary season that Hillary Clinton would bow to the inevitable, she enraged Democrats who expected her to start strengthening Barack Obama as nominee. During a conference call between Clinton and New York members of Congress, Rep. Nydia Velazquez suggested that only an Obama-Clinton ticket could secure the His ...

Updated: Thu Jun 05, 2008

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A McCain Mistake for 06/07/2008

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. John McCain had just begun his speech from Kenner, La., on the year's last primary election night when distraught Republicans began e-mailing each other this message: Is it possible at this late hour for our presidential candidate to learn to read a teleprompter?

McCain's strategists, concerned that he has been out of the spotlight for months while Sen. Bara ...

Updated: Sat Jun 07, 2008

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McCain's Evangelical Problem for 06/09/2008

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Shortcomings by John McCain's campaign in the art of politics are alienating two organizations of Christian conservatives. James Dobson's Focus on the Family is estranged following the failure of Dobson and McCain to talk out their differences. Evangelicals who follow the Rev. John Hagee resent his disavowal by McCain.

The evangelicals are not an isolated problem ...

Updated: Mon Jun 09, 2008

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Decline of the Senate for 06/12/2008

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. Arlen Specter, at age 78 suffering from cancer, was feeling miserable Monday following chemotherapy the previous Friday. But believing the best antidote was hard work, Specter took the Senate floor with a speech different in kind from the partisan oratory now customary in the chamber.

Specter, a Republican centrist, never has been much of a partisan, but dur ...

Updated: Thu Jun 12, 2008

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Biden for VP? for 06/14/2008

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Before multimillionaire Democratic power broker James A. Johnson quit as Sen. Barack Obama's chief vice presidential screener, the name that came to the fore in his internal discussions was 65-year-old, six-term Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware.

Biden, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, made a good impression in his losing bid for the presidential nomi ...

Updated: Sat Jun 14, 2008

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The Fed Doesn't Raise for 06/16/2008

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Speculation that the Federal Reserve is about to begin inflation-fighting interest rate increases appears to be dead wrong. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is worried more about runaway oil prices contracting the global economy than inflating it with a wage-cost spiral. According to sources close to him, America's leading central bank has no plans for a raise.

That ...

Updated: Mon Jun 16, 2008

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My Friend and My Source for 06/19/2008

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A 26-year-old political operative from Buffalo on Daniel Patrick Moynihan's staff in 1977 was overshadowed by the all-star cast accompanying the newly elected senator to Washington. Not for the last time, Timothy J. Russert surpassed famous contemporaries. His first noteworthy feat was saving Moynihan from sure defeat for re-election, enabling an illustrious 24-year Sen ...

Updated: Thu Jun 19, 2008

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How to Hit Obama for 06/21/2008

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Leaders of Sen. John McCain's campaign are looking toward "527s" as their principal means of attacking Sen. Barack Obama because they have been given a green light by McCain.

"I can't be a referee of every spot run on television," McCain told the Boston Herald in an interview published June 12. He gave up after trying earlier this year to mode ...

Updated: Sat Jun 21, 2008

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A Chance for McCain for 06/23/2008

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — When John McCain met privately with Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin after a political event in the Milwaukee suburbs May 29, the Republican presidential candidate might not have realized that he had just come face to face with an opportunity and a test. Ryan showed him his plan to reform the economy. McCain expressed interest and said he would turn it over to his campaign's ...

Updated: Mon Jun 23, 2008

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Two Big Obamacons? for 06/26/2008

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — What is an "Obamacon?" The phrase surfaced in January to describe British Conservatives entranced by Barack Obama. On March 13, the American Spectator broadened the term to cover all "conservative supporters" of the Democratic presidential candidate. Their ranks, though growing, feature few famous people. But looming on the horizon are two big potent ...

Updated: Thu Jun 26, 2008

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Empty Fed Chairs for 06/28/2008

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has appealed to Senate Democratic leaders to confirm President Bush's long-pending nominations to fill two empty chairs as Fed governors, enabling a fully staffed central bank to handle the current financial crisis. He did not receive a favorable response from Sen. Christopher Dodd, Senate Banking Committee chairman.

Dodd omi ...

Updated: Sat Jun 28, 2008

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Scalia Saving Obama for 06/30/2008

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After months of claiming insufficient information to express an opinion on the District of Columbia gun law, Barack Obama noted with apparent approval Thursday that the Supreme Court ruled the 32-year ban on handguns "went too far." But what would he have said had the high court's five-to-four majority gone the other way and affirmed the law? Obama's strategis ...

Updated: Mon Jun 30, 2008

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Visitor From Pakistan for 07/03/2008

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Yousuf Raza Gilani, prime minister of Pakistan, will lunch with George W. Bush in the White House on Monday, July 28. That will not be merely another of the president's routine meetings with foreign leaders. As Pakistan's democratically elected government and U.S. diplomats understand, the lunch symbolizes a turn away from Washington's attachment to military rule under ...

Updated: Thu Jul 03, 2008

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Gen. Clark's Attack for 07/05/2008

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, whose stock as Sen. Barack Obama's possible vice presidential running mate had been rising, may have ruined his chances with his belittling attack on Sen. John McCain's war record.

Clark, along with other Obama surrogates, followed the campaign's line of downgrading McCain's performance as a Vietnam War POW. But Clark was particularly i ...

Updated: Sat Jul 05, 2008

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